Law - Europe: EU Legislation

'COM docs' include proposed legislation, communications and reports.

A CELEX number is a unique identifier for a document in EUR-Lex.

Treaties are primary sources of law, setting out the overall objectives of the European Union. Every action taken by the EU is founded on treaties. You can find out more about treaties on the Europa website.

There are five types of secondary legislation:

• Regulations - addressed to all Member States. To be applied in full and directly applicable

• Directives - addressed to all Member States. Set an objective, but the national authority can decide how to achieve the objective within their own legal framework

• Decisions - may be addressed to all Member States, or one Member State, or a company, or a group of individuals or one individual. Binding on the addressee and directly applicable

• Recommendations and Opinions - are 'soft law' instruments and have no binding force. 

You can find out more about these on the Europa website.